Methods have been provided for measuring vehicles, which can determine if a vehicle is deformed and the magnitude of the deformation. For example, Car-O-Liner in Sweden provides a system called Car-O-Tronic where cars are measured and the measured data are compared with data for the specific car model. The car model data are retrieved from a data base comprising original geometric data for measuring points on thousands of different car models. If the measured data does not comply with the retrieved data, the car is deformed. If the deformation is large the car needs to be aligned.
Methods for aligning vehicles have been provided where portions of the vehicle are supported and a force; large enough to deform the vehicle, is applied to another portion of the vehicle. The supports should be steady enough so that the supported portions do not move during the deforming step.
A problem is that there is a risk that the supports and the supported portions of the vehicle moves when the force is applied, so that the vehicle is not deformed enough.
A subsequent re-measuring of the vehicle will then reveal a remaining deformation, and the vehicle has to be aligned once again.